UCP budget full of broken promises, says MLA Phillips

Oct 27, 2019 | 10:51 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Lethbridge West MLA and Provincial NDP Finance Critic Shannon Phillips says the budget Jason Kenney and his government delivered Thursday, will be “devastating” to just about everyone in the province.

Kenney warned of impending “restraint” but also said the budget would be balanced by 2023. Phillips says the severity of that restraint will hit cities, educational institutions, students, seniors, those who are disabled and many, many others. The budget calls for cutting $1.8 billion in operating expenses over four years.

Corporations will get $4.5 billion in tax breaks, as a means of attracting new investment to the province.

“We knew that there were going to be some cuts, even though he said there weren’t going to be…but what we didn’t realized is that all of our personal income taxes are going to go up. He did a bit of a change to how they calculate the brackets, and as a result, after a couple of years we’re all going to be paying hundreds of dollars more. And that’s every single person.”

She also believes that property taxes will be raised to make up for a shortfall in the Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI). In Lethbridge, it means a reduction of $94-million dollars from the province next year, and $142 million the year after.

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“Property taxes will go up almost certainly, as a number of devastating cuts have been made to municipalities without any warning,” claims Phillips.

One bright spot she acknowledges, is increased spending for addictions services, law enforcement, prosecutors and drug courts – but again, not without caveats.

“There are some small new investments. But overall we’re seeing a number of reductions in justice solicitor general, particularly in the courts. So, what’s going to happen is that we see a reduction of 200 people in court staff, sheriffs and others, so people are going to end up just walking free.”

She adds that at this point there’s no way of knowing how much of the $140 million in opioid addiction/drug and mental health treatment funding will find its way to Lethbridge.

by Lara Fominoff